The forum was co-sponsored by the city and the Garden Ridge Area Republican Club.

Britan and Dalton are running to succeed Jay Feibelman, who is retiring after 16 years as mayor.

With the drought expected to continue this summer, the availability of and restrictions on water was on the mind of several residents.

Garden Ridge's primary water source is from the Trinity Aquifer, which comes through Comal County. The city's secondary water source is from the Edwards Aquifer.

Britan, who was elected to the council in 2004, said the city is always searching for new water resources.

“The city has a couple of very quiet background investigations ongoing seeking new sources of water,” Britan said. “Whether they will come to fruition is too soon to tell at this point in time, but we are pursuing.”

Dalton, who has been a council member for two years, said it is critical that the city find more water sources, as future regulations may put more restrictions on both the Trinity and Edwards aquifers.

He referred to a proposed bill in the state Legislature that will create a Trinity Aquifer groundwater district.

“I think there are changes afoot with the regulation of the Trinity and the regulation of the Edwards that are going to directly impact our water sources, as soon as possibly this year,” Dalton said. “I think we need to be very aggressive in staying in front of that.”

Both mayoral candidates said they would like to see the community have a middle school and high school in the future. The first school in the city, Garden Ridge Elementary School, opened in 2010.

The city needs to work with the Comal Independent School District, Dalton said, to find nearby land that would be suitable for a middle and high schools.

By having more schools in the community, Dalton said more families will move to Garden Ridge, which will help the city economically.

“The closer (a high school) is to us, the easier it will be for our families to get to school and for us to keep our property values high by having constant interest in people moving to Garden Ridge,” he explained.

“For the most part, most of the developments we've had in the past have worked out very well,” Britan said. “I think you can attribute that purely and simply to the Planning and Zoning Commission.”

When it comes to future development, Dalton said he believes the city needs to take traffic impact into consideration before approving new subdivisions and keep an eye on the growth outside the city, especially along FM 2252 towards the Bracken area.

“We need to have better plans for our infrastructure, particularly along (FM) 3009 and (FM) 2252,” Dalton said, “so we can facilitate the transfer of traffic around the city rather than through the city.”